Material handling apparatus



Nov. 19, 1968 A.MUsSCHooT ETAL l 3,411,171

MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS Filed May 31, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet l Harz/fnG. 7h omsofz NOV. 19, 1968 A MUSSCHOQT ET AL 3,411,171

MATERI AL HANDLING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 31, 196e UnitedStates Patent O 3,411,171 MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS Albert Musschoot,Barrington, and Marvin G. Thomson, Prospect Heights, Ill., assignors toGeneral Kinematics Corporation, a corporation of Illinois Filed May 31,1966, Ser. No. 554,077 2 Claims. (Cl. 15-94) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSUREThe present apparatus provides a vibratory conveyor for large castings,which conveyor serves to orient the castings in a predeterminedalignment, to separate said therefrom, and to convey the castings to adesired point of delivery. Additionally, the invention provides meansfor receiving the sand expelled from castings, for breaking up any lumpsfrom the sand, and then conveying the sand to a desired point.

This invention relates to material handling apparatus and moreparticularly to an apparatus specifically designed to handle castingsimmediately after their ejection from a casting flask, with theapparatus serving the additional purpose of separating the sand from thecasting and rendering the former suitable for reuse in the foundryprocess.

It is a general object of the present invention to produce new andimproved material handling apparatus of the character described.

Modern foundries are coming more and more to the utilization ofautomatic molding machines as a step looking to the ultimate automationof foundry casting processes. The size of molds used for castings isconstantly increasing as the art progresses, and better apparatus forhandling the castings direct from the mold is required. Additionally, itis desirable that means be provided for rendering the sand used in thecasting process, and which is ejected from the ask along with thecasting, reusable in the foundry process and thus reduce the cost ofoperation.

It has been the practice to eject a casting and its accompanying sand ona horizontally oriented vibrating deck having perforated holes in itsbottom. This system has not been completely successful inasmuch as inmany cases the sand is in the form of hard lumps of a size greater thanthe size of the perforations and hence the lumps are not passedtherethrough nor is the sand rendered reusable. Additionally, the formerequipment moved the castings to the end of the shake-out bed incompletely disoriented and random fashion.

According to the present invention, however, there is provided anapparatus which completely separates sand from the casting even thoughthe sand be in the form of relatively large lumps, and which furthermorenot only reduces the lumps to reusable size, the apparatus also Orientsthe castings as it delivers them to the delivery end of the apparatus sothat they may be handled thereat by other automatic devices.

Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will bereadily apparent from the following description and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a composite side elevational view partially broken away forclarity of illustration of an apparatus embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section taken along line 3 3 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken along line 4 4 of FIG. 1.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in ice many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described indetail a specific embodiment, with the understanding that the presentdisclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principlesof the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to theembodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed outin the appended claims.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown an article conveyor 10positioned adjacent a sand conveyor 11 with the larticle conveyorincluding a longitudinally extending conveyor bed 12 transverselyinclined as shown particularly in FIGS. 3 and 4. A wall 13 extends alongthe upper edge of the bed 12 with the wall inclining inwardly as shown.Positioned along the lower edge of the bed 12 is a perforate -articlearresting means in the form of a rail 14 with the rail being arranged soas to retain articles on the bed 12 while permitting sand particles andlumps to pass therebeneath.

Castings ejected from a flask are placed upon the bed 12 at a punch outlocation 15 at one end thereof and are moved by means hereinafterdescribed along the bed to a push oli area 16 where they may be pushedoff to be received by subsequent article handling means. An end rail 17locates the end of the push ol area.

The bed 12 is supported upon vertical frame members 18 and horizontalframe members 19 with the latter being mounted for vibratory conveyingmovement on pivoted arms 20 and coil springs 21, ythe latter items beingsecured to a base member 22. As seen in FIG. 1, an electric motor 23 isprovided to drive by means of a belt 24 an eccentric shaft 25 secured tothe frame members 18 so that rotation of the motor and hence rotation ofthe shaft causes vibratory movement of the bed 12.

The sand conveyor is provided with a lip 26 underlying the lower edge ofthe bed 12 so as to direct sand passing under the rail 14 into a hopper27. Sand in the hopper drops downwardly into a sand lump breaker 28 ofthe type described and claimed in our copending application Ser. No.382,875 tiled Iuly 15, 1964 now Patent No. 3,335,861, issued Aug. 15,1`967. As illustrated herein, the lump breaker 28 is supported forvibratory movement on pivoted arms 29 and coil springs 30 in turnsupported on base member 31. Sand passes through the lump breaker 28Where the lumps are retained and broken into smaller portions byvibratory movement of the lump breaker so that eventually sand particlesdrop through the lump breaker 28 onto a conveyor belt 32 mounted onrollers 33 which convey the sand to a place of storage for reuse. Thelump breaker 28 is vibrated as described in said copending applicationby means of an electric motor, drive, and eccentric shaft, similar tothe system 23-25 described above. Any sand which does not fall over thelower edge of the inclined bed 12 is conveyed to the end thereof whereit falls into a chute 35 which connects with the upstream end of thesand conveyor 11.

In operation, the casting indicated as 40 in FIG. 4 is loweredvertically onto the punch out area 15 and hence is conveyed to the pushoff area by the vibratory conveying action of the bed 12 which vibratesin the direction indicated by the arrow 41 in FIG. 1. The vibratorymovement causes the casting not only to move toward the push o area butto slide to the lower portion of the bed 12 at which it is arrested bythe rail 14, which arresting movement of course Orients the casting inthe manner shown. The vibratory movement shakes sand loose from thecasting and drops it from the bed over the lower edge thereof into thesand conveying apparatus 11. Any lumps in the foundry sand are broken upby said vibratory movement and thus the sand is rendered suitable forreuse.

When the article arrives at the push o area 16 it is, of course, notonly positioned against the rail 14 but it is also oriented relativethereto so as to be accurately aligned for pickup by other materialhandling apparatus.

The particular apparatus illustrated handles automobile engine cylinderblocks, castings of some considerable size, and the particular shape ofthe Wall 13 has been designed so as to orient the cylinder blockslengthwise. The particular location and conguration of the wall 13 maybe changed when castings of different shape or size are to be handled.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for separating sand from a cast article comprising alongitudinally extending conveyor, means supporting the conveyor in atransversely inclined position, article arresting means extending alongthe lower edge of the conveyor, said article arresting means beingperforate to permit sand to pass therethrough, means positioned belowsaid lower edge to receive sand passing through the arresting means, asecond longitudinally extending conveyor extending parallel to the rstmentioned conveyor and positioned below said sand receiving means, meansfor vibrating the first mentioned conveyor along a path inclined theretoto convey sand-bearing articles from one end of the rst mentionedconveyor toward the other end and to separate sand therefrom, and a sandlump breaking apparatus positioned intermediate said sand receivingmeans and said first mentioned conveyor.

2. Apparatus for separating sand from a cast article comprising alongitudinally extending conveyor, means supporting the conveyor in atransversely inclined position, article arresting means extending alongthe lower edge of the conveyor, said article arresting means beingperforate to permit sand to pass therethrough, means positioned belowsaid lower edge to receive sand passing through the arresting means,means for vibrating the conveyor along a path inclined thereto to conveysand-bearing articles from one end of the conveyor toward the other endand to separate sand therefrom, and vibratory sand lump breakingapparatus positioned intermediate said lower edge and the said receivingmeans, said receiving means including a second conveyor to carryscreened sand to acollector.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,119,596 6/1938 Mintertet al.

WALTER A. SCHEEL, Primary Examiner.

LEON G. MACHLIN, Assistant Examiner'.

